Okehampton ladies 1

Tavistock ladies 1

THE local derby between Okehampton and Tavistock ladies' hockey first teams was hosted by Oke on Saturday. With the visitors standing third in the West Women's South Hockey League and Oke fourth this was always going to be a closely fought encounter.

The game was played at a fast and furious pace so careful use of the rolling substitutes was crucial to both teams.

Initially it was Oke who took charge with attacking midfielder Winnie Rademaker linking well with forward Molly Petherbridge to pressurise the Tavistock goal but they were unable to convert this pressure into goals. Tavistock soon found their form leading to a period of exciting end to end hockey.

Tavistock midfielders White, Kelly and Fenwick worked to gain possession and build the attacks. The first chance for Tavistock came from an Okehampton foot in the D, a short corner was awarded that came top of the D to captain Armstrong, who struck the ball just wide of the goal.

It was Tavistock who broke the deadlock — from the right wing the ball moved to Fenwick who played the ball quickly behind the Okehampton defence for centre forward Armstrong to run on to. Armstrong pulled the ball onto the reverse and struck the ball between the keeper's pads to make it 1-0 to Tavistock.

Five minutes before half time whistle a collision between the Oke keeper and a determined Tavistock attacker led to the keeper leaving the pitch. Oke's experienced defender Carol Tayler dropped back to play a deep defensive role and organise the home players keeping the hungry Tavistock attack at bay until half time.

After half time Oke came out fighting. Their enthusiastic play led to a shot on the Tavistock goal being stopped by a defender's foot and Oke were awarded a penalty flick. However, they could not convert this flick into a goal but it gave them the confidence to keep attacking. This led to Jo Moppett having a quick and skilful solo run outwitting the Tavy defence and slotting the ball into the goal for an equaliser.

With time now running out for Tavistock the attacks continued to build and penetrate the Okehampton D Law made a strong run across the back line to pop the ball up to Gasper who just touched the ball wide of the goal.

Oke gave away several penalty corners — the Oke defenders were well drilled for these penalty corner routines. Oke's goalie, player of the match Shannon Osman, made several crucial saves and Jane Jones cleared a shot on goal from the line to keep their team in the game.

Tavistock welcomed back attacker Abi Hall who had been away with injury, her debut on the pitch saw several strong strikes on target but with strong saves from the Okehampton keeper the score remained 1-1 at the final whistle.

Oke were relieved to hear the final whistle and share the points after an entertaining match.